Abstract

Multiferroic heterostructures were fabricated by growing ferrimagnetic films on ferroelectric substrates using pulsed laser deposition. Upon applying an electric field, the in-plane magnetization of the heterostructures increases and the out-of-plane magnetization decreases. Sharp and reversible changes in magnetization under electric field were also observed for the poled sample. The relative change in magnetization-electric field hysteresis loops were obtained for both the in-plane and out-of-plane magnetizations. Analysis of the results suggests that the electric field induced change in magnetic anisotropy via strain plays an important role in the magnetoelectric coupling in the heterostructures.

Received 16 March 2009Accepted 06 May 2009Published online 27 May 2009

Acknowledgments:

This work was supported by the 973 project (Grant No. 2009CB929202), National Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 50872065 and 10674079), and Tsinghua National Laboratory for Information Science and Technology (TNList) Cross-discipline Foundation.